Majority of Americans disapprove of Obama

US President Barack Obama (Photo from http://www.facebook.com/barackobama) / Facebook

Just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse, approval ratings for US President Barack Obama continue to sink. The latest poll revealed this week continues to chronicle the American unrest directed towards the commander-in-chief.

A survey conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News just published reveals that the disapproval rating of Barack Obama is at a majority for the first time since he entered the White House. A similar study also just out from NBC News in conjunction with the Wall Street Journal shows similar standing for the president. In the first poll, Obama faces a 53 percent disapproval rating; in the second: 51 percent.

Despite seeing a surge in popularity following the execution of Osama bin Laden earlier this year, Obama’s approval rating has waned amid the debt crisis which plagued politics for the last several months. As the country attempts to rebound from recession (and avoid another one), the president is tasked with saving the United States from entering a second Great Depression while also attempting to create jobs at a time when the unemployment rate is at a significantly high standing.

Earlier this summer, a Gallup poll concluded that of 1,500 adults surveyed, only 39 percent approved of Obama’s job performance. That was the first time the president’s approval rating below 40 percent in Gallup-conducted studies since the Obama administration began in January 2009. Now other polling houses are coming to the same consensus.

The Washington Post adds that while Obama’s approval rating is now worse than those of both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton during the same time in their first terms as president, both managed to still remain in office for a second round, despite “serious midterm setbacks.”

In the latest polls, however, both reveal that only one-in-five Americans feel that the country is “headed in the right direction,” which might make it easy for the Republican candidates vying for the GOP nomination to attack the Democrats at this week’s debate. The NBC/WSJ poll puts President Obama only five percentage points ahead of Texas Governor Rick Perry in regards to registered voter’s stance on the 2012 election. When polled on the matter of Obama against whichever Republican candidate earns the GOP nomination, however, the poll puts the president in second place.

It isn’t all bad news for Obama, though. The NBC poll says that 70 percent of Americans still like Obama “personally.”